Judy Kuhn and Melissa Errico Set to Lead PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner announced today that acclaimed/awarding winning actresses Judy Kuhn and Melissa Errico will star as Fosca and Clara in the company's new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning musical PASSION, to be directed by John Doyle (the Tony Award-winning revivals of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and Company). PASSION is slated to begin performances in February, 2013. Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks and months, as well as full creative team. PASSION opened on Broadway in May of 1994 and received the Tony Award that year for Best Musical.

Judy sang the title role in Disney's Pocahontas as well as the in the sequel Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World. Other film and television appearances include: "Enchanted," "Hope & Faith," "Law & Order," "All My Children," "The Secret Life of Mary Margaret" on HBO), "My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies" on PBS, "The Kennedy Center Honors," "The Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert" on PBS, "In Performance At The White House" on PBS, and the independent feature Day on Fire in which she costarred and performed the soundtrack with John Medeski. Judy has performed on concert stages around the world including appearances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, The Royal Albert Hall in London and with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops Orchestra. She can be heard on numerous original cast recordings as well as her solo album Just In Time: Judy Kuhn Sings Jule Styne. In October of 2007 Judy released a new CD Serious Playground:The Songs of Laura Nyro and has performed selections from the recording in concert at Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub and the Kennedy Center.

Melissa Errico has starred in numerous Broadway musicals and released two major solo CDs: Blue Like That (EMI) and Lullabies and Wildflowers (VMG/Universal). In 2003, Melissa won a Tony-nomination for Best Leading Actress in the Broadway musical Amour, composed by multi-Oscar-winning composer Michel Legrand. During the summer of 2011, Melissa co-starred with Alec Baldwin in Gift of the Gorgon by Peter Shaffer, and reprised Camelot with Jeremy Irons for one-night only on Broadway at The Shubert Theater. Errico's other Broadway credits include Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Children and Art, Dracula, Finian's Rainbow, Short Talks on the Universe, High Society, My Fair Lady and Anna Karenina. Other theater credits include The Threepenny Opera (Wiliamstown Theatre Festival), Sunday in the Park with George (Sondheim Festival) and the off-Broadway productions of One Touch of Venus and Call Me Madam.

Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, The Frogs, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, Assassins, Passion and Road Show as well as lyrics for West Side Story, Gypsy and Do I Hear a Waltz? and additional lyrics for Candide. Anthologies of his work include Side by Side by Sondheim, Marry Me a Little, You're Gonna Love Tomorrow and Putting It Together. For films and television, he composed the scores of Stavisky and Reds and wrote songs for Dick Tracyand "Evening Primrose." He co-authored the film The Last of Sheila and the play Getting Away With Murder. Mr. Sondheim is on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, having served as its president from 1973 to 1981

James Lapine has worked with Stephen Sondheim on Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods and Passion. He also directed the first revival of Merrily We Roll Along at La Jolla Playhouse. He also created and directed Sondheim on Sondheim for the Roundabout. With William Finn he has worked on Falsettos, A New Brain, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the upcoming Little Miss Sunshine. Other Broadway credits: The Diary of Anne Frank, Golden Child and Amour. He has written the plays Table Settings; Twelve Dreams; Luck, Pluck & Virtue; The Moment When; Fran's Bed; and Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing.

John Doyle received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards as Outstanding Director of a Musical for his Broadway debut, Sweeney Todd. His production of Sondheim's Company won the Tony for Best Musical Revival and earned him a Tony Award nomination as Best Director of A Musical. For The Metropolitan Opera he directed Peter Grimes. Other recent opera includes Mahagonny (L.A. Opera) and Lucia (Scottish Opera). He won UK Best Musical Awards for The Gondoliers (West End), Fiddler on the Roof and Moll Flanders with nominations for four other productions including Mack and Mabel (also West End). John has been artistic director of four prestigious UK regional theatres and has directed numerous new and classic plays, most recently Amadeus (Wilton's Music Hall).

CSC presents plays from the past that speak directly to the issues of today. As we return to works of the past, we endeavor to keep a clear eye on the future, particularly in terms of the next generation of artists and audiences. Founded in 1967, CSC has received wide recognition for its significant contributions to theatre as an art form through productions of classic plays, translations and adaptations and a long-standing commitment to the identification and nurturing of leading and emerging artists. Classic Stage's artists are the finest established and emerging theater practitioners working in this country. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theatre, Classic Stage has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. For more information on Classic Stage Company visit the theatre's website at www.classicstage.org.